Tuesday, June 11, 2013

And Then There Was One

The DV Den, 320 College Street Amherst

The second to the last movie rental store left in Amherst, The DV Den, has called it quits. Or as they say in Hollywood, "Fade to black."

While the business was ahead of the curve at one time -- becoming the first rental operation in the area to phase out video tapes and go all-DVD in 2006, in the end it was a technological shift in the delivery of movies that all but exterminated the storefront movie rental industry.

Netflix made rentals as easy as point and click for instant access to thousands of movies, and if you did not mind waiting a day or two, first run DVD movies delivered to your mailbox. All with a comparatively cheap low monthly subscription cost.

The recent rise of Redbox was probably the final blow as first run moves were conveniently available in ubiquitous vending machines located near and far (one of them within disc throw of The DV Den) where the discs could be returned to any location and only costs $1.20 per rental, almost four times cheaper than the price charged by The DV Den.

Redbox, 360 College Street, Amherst

But you cannot ask a vending machine for a movie recommendation, or briefly discuss how your day is going thus far.

Efficiency always seems to be at the expense of humanity; and Amherst is now diminished because of it.

The issue at DVD Den was they charged too much for a rental. $4 per DVD for a rental. When the Red Box was across the street at a $1 per night it was only a matter of time. But I am going to miss DVD Den, it was great when you wanted to rent an entire season TV series.

Total number of discs rented out of Redbox per minute 1600 discsTotal percentage of Redbox users who rent another movie upon return 25%Total impression per week made by Redbox 200 millionTotal number of discs dished out by Redbox 2 billionNumber of Redbox locations nationwide 29,000Number of Redbox movies rented per week 9.5 millionNumber of Redbox movies rented per day 1.2 millionNumber of Redbox movies rented per hour 54,000Number of Redbox movies rented per minute 900Number of Redbox movies rented per second 15Number of new Redbox’s that opened every minute in 2010 1

It has always been a pleasure to stop in at DVDen, and, as noted, the movie advice: incomparable! A piece of my kids' childhood memories goes along with you, when you go. Sorry to see that happening to one of the "good guys" of the Happy Valley. Wishing you all the best in whatever comes next, Jeff (may it be in earshot of the Maine ocean surf...).

So sorry to see them go. What a sad day for serious film fans. Red Box simply caters to the mall crowd and net Flix is not much better. Perhaps the good folks of Amherst could buy Jeff's inventory and place it in the town library as was done with Pleasant St Video in NoHo? We'll miss you Jeff.

Jeff and dvden had a great run. They servered the Amherst area with a great catalog of DVDs for a long time. My hat goes of to him. I wish him the best and can honestly say he will be greatly missed.

It also a huge feather in Amherst's cap to keep not just one but two independent video store open and healthy long past any other town in the valley.

So that leaves us, Captain Video. We have been open since 1996 (17 years) and our customer bases has been incredibly supportive. Over the last few years we have serving more and more of the overall valley. We have about 27,000 movies at this point and it's all been built to our customers taste.

Last year we did 5% over the year before and this year we are holding steady. I don't know how long we'll keep going for but at this point I see no end in near sight.

Really I'm just very appresative to Amherst and the hill towns to the north of us to give us this chance to serve them good entertainment for this long.

Cheers to Jeff and to the whole staff at Dvden and to Amherst as well.

Seems a bit tactless and no class to be shilling for Capt. Video here. I guess that's what's worst about DVDen closing. We're left with the late fee charging /$9.00 a pound candy place. How long before they raise prices, now that Capt. Video is tamping down the dirt on DVDen? I'll take Netflix, I guess.